Thursday 13 October 2022

The Hunter's Moon

 As we pulled into Buck Beck car park it was just beginning to get dark with still some colour in the sky from the setting sun.  We could see a great deal of gull activity as we approached and on seeing that the tide was right up to the sea wall, I regretted not coming earlier to watch the clouds of waders going toroost as they were were washed off the foreshore.

I just had time to photograph the remains of the sunset before the reddish orange moon slid above the horizon just to the south of Spurn with Jupiter sparkling in the sky slightly further to the south.  As the moon rose there was still enough daylight left to include the landscape and the reflection of the moon in the sea.  I never tire of watching the full moon rise, deep orange as the light reflected from it has to pass through more of the Earth's atmosphere.  These atmospheric particles tend to scatter the shorter wavelengths of light more than the longer wavelengths.  Orange and red light, which have longer wavelengths, tend to pass through the atmosphere, while shorter wavelengths, such as blue, get scattered.  As the moon rises higher in the sky, it has less atmosphere to pass through so the blue light begins to pass through as well, making the moon appear more white or silver. Photographically it is more challenging to capture images of the moon as it rises as light levels are very low resulting in long exposure times and a risk of blurring as the moon moves surprisingly quickly. When it rises higher in the sky more light is reflected resulting in faster shutter speeds and sharper images.

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